I’m not a villain, insists US dealer in painting furore

TO THE casual observer it is an unassuming portrait of a young man in a red cap, but this masterpiece of Florentine mannerism has prompted a fracas rich in intrigue, that even led to calls for laws to be changed.

Last year, the Jacopo Pontormo painting sparked a furore in the UK art world, after it was bought by an American collector then “saved for the nation” by the National Gallery – only for the deal to fall through.

But representatives for Tom Hill, the painting’s new owner, today disclosed the lengths he had gone to to ensure that it could go on public display in the UK, suggesting he has been unfairly portrayed as a villain.

Mr Hill worked to make a deal with the gallery and warned them that he would not be able to follow it through after the Brexit vote changed the pound-dollar exchange rate, his lawyer said.

The painting was made the subject of an export ban and fundraising campaign by the National Gallery to save it for the nation. The gallery successfully raised £30.6 million to keep it, before the agreement fell through. The episode resulted in calls for changes to the export ban system to compel owners to sell their paintings to national institutions that can raise the money.

Roland Foord, who represented Mr Hill at the legal firm Stephenson Harwood, said the art collector had been left “bruised” after being unfairly “painted as the villain”. He disclosed that Mr Hill had initially agreed to the deal with the National Gallery after buying the painting from the Earl of Caledon in 2015, applying for a licence to take it home to America before being told it must first be given a chance to stay in Britain.

The Arts Council set the sum of £30.6 million to be raised by an institution that would put it on public display; then the equivalent of the sum Mr Hill had paid in dollars. But, Mr Foord said, the effect of the Brexit vote on the value of sterling left Mr Hill $7 million out of pocket by July, and up to $10 million since.

Mr Foord said he wrote to the Arts Council in July, to ask that this be taken into account in the fundraising efforts. When no concessions were forthcoming, Mr Hill declined to sell the work.

Mr Foord argued that it was unfair to suggest Mr Hill had breached an obligation and said that he “has played it absolutely straight”.

The collector made efforts to come to another deal with the gallery, involving the loan of the painting for public display, he claimed.

“He [Mr Hill] absolutely acknowledges he made that commitment and if the circumstances in which he made it had remained the same when the offer came along he would have met it,” said Mr Foord.

The 1530 painting will now remain in Britain indefinitely after an export licence was refused.